From left, Li Shaolin, president ofthe Houston chapter of China General Chamber of Commerce USA, Consul General of China in Houston Li Qiangmin, and China Telecom Americas Vice- President Zhao Hui attend CTA's Texas office ceremony in Houston on Oct 20. (MAY ZHOU / CHINA DAILY)
China Telecom Americas (CTA) has opened an office in Dallas to handle the state's increasing presence of Chinese companies and Chinese
CTA held an opening ceremonyfor the branch on Oct 20 in Houston. The office will focus on promoting carrier service under the brand CTExcel, corporate information, communication and technologies (ITC)and cloud solutions,as well as business collaboration with its partners such as AT&T, Huawei and ZTE U.S.A, all with headquarters in Dallas.
Zhao Hui, vice-president at CTA, said that the company primarily focused on serving U.S. companies when it first came to the U.S. in 2000. Beginning in 2013, CTA set up a team to concentrate on serving Chinese companies and Chinese.
``In the past three years, our business has been growing at 60 percent a year," said Zhao. "We provide comprehensive ICT services to some of the major Chinese companies in the U.S., including Bank of China, Fuyao Glass America which produces a quarter of auto glass in the U.S.. In the past three years, our business has been growing at 60 percent a year."
CTA's CTExcel carrier service has signed up more than 50,000 customers in the U.S. in a little more than a year, said Zhao. Its service package offers duel sim cards with a U.S. number and a China number, plus free minutes between China and the U.S.. The service has been very popular among Chinese students studying in the U.S. and business people who travel a lot between China and the U.S..
"Our numbers show that there are more than 300,000 Chinese university students and scholars in the U.S.. If counting primary schools, the number is as high as 450,000. There are many opportunities," said Sun Feng, CTA's mobile business director. In Houston, there are five CTExcel retail stores, with more to come, he said
CTA has provided service for many high-level visits to the U.S. by Chinese government officials, such as Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2015 state visit and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's recent visit to the United Nations.
The opening event was co-hosted by the Houston chapter of China General Chamber of Commerce U.S.A (CGCC), with scores of executives attending from Chinese companies, many of them CTA's corporate customers.
Li Shaolin, president of the chamber's Houston chapter, welcomed CTA to Texas and as a new member to the local chapter.
"Our chapter has grown from 39 to 70 in a little over a year. Our goal is to increase it to 80 by August next year. We plan to add associate membership and admit U.S. companies to further benefit our member's business collaboration," he said.
Li Qiangmin, China's consul general in Houston, said that competition in the U.S. telecom market is very fierce, but that CTA's business strategy in the U.S. reflects its confidence in expanding its international business. With more Chinese and businesses coming to Texas, "CTA's Texas office will surely bring new growth to the company," he said.
